


Saving the World by Reading

by The_Gamer



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:53:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25563133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Gamer/pseuds/The_Gamer
Summary: The Fates send Heroes back in time to that fateful Winter Solstice when it all began.Their condition is that the past Campers, the future Heroes and the Gods must read books that will change the future. hopefuly for the better.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson
Comments: 7
Kudos: 115





	1. Chapter 1

Clarisse, Jason, Thalia, Nico, Frank, Leo, Hazel, Piper, and Annabeth appeared on Olympus suddenly in gold lights but they weren't the only ones or rather the first ones. Their past selves along with the current kids from Camp Half-Blood were there. A portal opened and they all saw the future Percy bouncing a screaming two-year-old.

"Come on, Estelle please." Percy pleaded. "I'll only be gone for a bit." Still, the girl screamed on. "Mom, I have to go to Olympus for a bit can you take Estelle?" 

Zeus got annoyed and waved his hand. 

Suddenly, Percy Jackson was standing there holding Estelle Blofis, Sally Jackson-Blofis stood there along with Paul Blofis. 

"There, you go, Estelle now I don't have to leave." The brown-haired, blue-eyed baby stopped her fit and grinned up at her big brother. Percy smiled back but looked around the room. "Okay, it's the Throne Room of Olympus before the makeover...." 

"MOM!" 12-year-old Percy Jackson slammed into Sally hugging her. 

"Riiight." 18-year-old Percy said, he looked at his full-grown friends who all shook their heads. He looked around again. "Olympus before the makeover, Hades on Olympus. Winter Solstice." He stated. 

"Looks like it." Annabeth nodded in agreement walking over and waving playfully at Estelle who blew a raspberry at her. "But which one?" 

A letter appeared and Athena caught it.

_Dear everyone,_

_We The Fates have sent several Heroes back in time while bringing the Camp here so that you may all read books about your future and the future of Olympus. It is our hope that by reading these books that you will change the future for the better._

_To the Futures please don't tell anyone who your Godly parent is. Or give out any Spoilers._

_To the Gods: You cannot vaporize or otherwise do harm to Percy or anyone else while this happening._

_The Fates._

The note vanished but a book appeared. The Gods shrunk themselves and their thrones down to a normal level and made sitting arrangements appear for everyone else. Percy plucked the book out of Athena's hand and went to sit with Nico on his loveseat. Annabeth looked angry and confused by this. 

"Okay, Estelle storytime," Percy told the toddler. 

Estelle squealed in delight.

"Percy!" Sally scolded holding her 12-year-old son against her. "Where are your manners, young man?"

Percy looked up then stood up. 

"Oh, right, we're in the past. " He said, "Sorry, about that. I'm Percy Jackson nice to meet all of you. These are my friends. Emo-boy here is Nico di Angelo." Nico's cheeks were a little pink but he said, hello. "Let's see, over on that couch in order is Thalia Grace, Annabeth Chase, and Jason Grace, moving on you've got Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque. Then Leo Valdez, and Piper McLean, and finally Clarisse La Rue, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and, " He grinned at everyone. "Hang on...Where's Grover?"

"He didn't arrive with us," Annabeth said, looking around.

"Over here." Their Grover said, he was eating a tin can as he came towards them. "Sorry, I'm late. I was babysitting and Clarisse's Godson is a terror for a Satyr." 

"come sit with me." Clarisse sighed.

Grover easily did. 

"Hi." Little Percy said, "Is that, my daughter?" 

"No way, " Percy laughed. "This is your baby sister, Estelle." 

Little Percy looked at the toddler in shock but sat with his mother and the man he didn't know. 

Percy retook his seat with Nico. 

"Okay, now we'll, Estelle," he said, softly. 

Estelle clapped her hands and gurgled.

**I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER**

"Percy!" Sally scolded. 

"You did what?" Jason laughed. 

"How do you accidentally vaporize your teacher?" Little Annabeth demand. 

"Accidently on purpose." Little Percy answered. "Take that for springing a quiz on me!" 

"Percy!" Sally scolded again. 

But Little Percy earned a lot of laughs even a few from the Gods. Paul messed up Little Percy's hair. 

Percy just smirked at his younger self. 

**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood. If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is:**

"RUN!" Thalia cried, "TAKE COVER!" 

"Why?" Poseidon asked frowning at the girl.

"Because Percy only gives bad advice," Thalia answered. 

"Not always, " Percy told her, "Listen to this."

**close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.**

"Okay, that's rather good advice." Nico nodded and blushed a bit when Percy flashed him a smile. Why was Percy sitting with him and not Annabeth?

**Being a half-blood is dangerous.**

"Check!" All the half-bloods said, and even Estelle nodded like, she understood. 

**It's scary.**

"Check." All the half-bloods agreed and again Estelle nodded. 

**Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**

"Check." they all said again. The futures all sounded said and remorseful at that one.

Everyone noticed. The Gods were all wondering the same thing 'Exactly, how dangerous, were their children's lives?'

**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.**

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages—if you feel something stirring inside—stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

"Wow, Percy," Hazel said, shaking her head. "Just wow."

"Real deep," Frank said. 

"Thanks," Percy said, looking up. "My new dad is an English teacher." 

"No, that's not what they meant, Percy." Annabeth huffed in frustration. 

Estelle grabbed the book. 

**Don't say I didn't warn you. My name is Percy Jackson.**

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

"Boo!" Little Percy called. "Boo, Yancy!" 

"Percy, of course, your not." Sally cried. 

"Yes." All of Percy's friends said at the same time.

**Yeah. You could say that.**

"See? You agree." Clarisse laughed. 

Estelle grabbed the book and began babbling angrily at it. How dare it say mean things about her big brother! She'd drool all over it! That would teach it! She went to put it in her mouth. 

Percy laughed and took the book away from her. He kissed her head. 

**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan— twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

"Sounds fun!" Athena and Annabeth said, at once. All the children of Athena agreed. 

Everyone else disagreed. 

"NO!" Little Percy cried to his best friend Little Grover. "Not another Yancy Feild Trip! Why must we be tortured?!" 

Little Annabeth glared at him from the couch on the other side of Grover. 

"Percy." Sally sighed. 

"Can we go to the Aquarium?" Little Percy asked. 

"We'll see." Sally chuckled. 

**I know—it sounds like torture.**

**Laughter rang around the room.**

**Most Yancy field trips were.**

**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

"Well, then maybe it won't be too bad." Little Percy said, doubtfully. 

"We can only hope." Little Grover agreed but didn't sound enthused. 

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

"Sleeping in class?!" Athena asked, scandalized.

Estelle shook her head too and looked up at Percy. 

Percy looked at Athena. 

"You can just start hating me now," he told her. "It'll make things easier later." 

"PERCY!" Annabeth scolded. 

Clarisse threw her head back laughing though.

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

"That's not happening," Thalia said.

**Boy was I wrong.**

There was a small moan from Nico at that. Percy smirked at him and Estelle climbed into his lap and plopped down putting her thumb into her mouth. Nico tensed as Percy and the others laughed. 

"Percy, do something!" Nico demanded. 

"Sure, Nico," Percy said, draping an arm over the back of the love seat.

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course, I got expelled anyway.**

Estelle lead the laughter with that. 

"That's not what I meant, Percy." Nico dead-panned. 

Percy just gave Nico a grin. 

**And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind-the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim.**

Estelle reached for her diaper bag and while everyone was laughing Percy fetched her, her favorite toy. A stuffed white plushy seel. He'd bought it for her birthday. 

"This is great." Hermes and Apollo laughed, "How many stories like that do you have?" 

"Too many..." Percy sighed. 

"That one was the best," Little Percy said with a huge grin. "and the blue cookies after were even better!"

**And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**

"No, we want more!" Hermes, Apollo, and the Stoll brothers cried. 

"Not now," Percy said, shaking his head. "Later...maybe...if you're good." 

The Stoll brothers pouted much as Hermes and Apollo were doing. Sally giggled into her hand. Little Percy cocked his head to the side while staring at his older self in confusion.

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

“Good luck with that Prissy,” Clarisse sneered.

“Thanks.” Percy deadpanned.

Clarisse shot him a grin.

"Well, at least you tried, honey," Sally said. 

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

"That. Is disgusting." Aphrodite said wrinkling her nose. 

There were nods of agreement around the room. It did sound disgusting.

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

"Percy!" Grover cried. 

"Sorry, Grover," Both Percy's apologized. 

Estelle leaned against Nico and tried to get him to wrap his arms around her. When he didn't do what she wanted her big brother made him. Her thumb was soon back in her mouth and she stared at her brother in adoration.

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

"Yep, boring." Little Percy sighed in annoyance. 

Little Grover nodded mournfully.

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

"Thank you, Grover," Sally said, then gave Percy a disapproving look. "Percy," 

"I don't like bullies, mom." Little Percy cried, "and you've never met her! She's terrible and she's always picking on Grover and..."

Percy looked nostalgic as he watched his younger self try to defend his actions.

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there.**

"Why would you hit a girl?!" Artemis demanded. 

"Are you not listening?" Percy dead-panned. 

He cried out when Thalia, who was next to him on the next couch smacked him upside the head. 

"He means no disrespect, Lady Artemis." She said, bowing her head to the Goddess. 

"Yeah, no disrespect," Percy agreed, "But, she's a terrible and horrible person."

"Read, Percy!" Thalia snapped before he put his foot in his mouth.

Percy read.

**In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues, and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

"Longer." All the gods and goddesses said together.

Percy was quiet for a bit. 

"What's wrong?" Nico asked. 

"This might be Paul's influence on me," Percy said, pointing at the book. "But I've noticed that this book has some grammatical errors. Missing commas, too many commas, and stuff like that." 

Little Percy looked horrified though he was still in awe that his future self was reading at all. 

Paul laughed then and Sally and Estelle joined him. 

Annabeth settled for praising Percy while Nico just snickered. 

"Just keep reading, Prissy," Clarisse called.

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone column with a big sphinx on the top and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

"Naturally," Leo huffed.

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

"Percy, again?" Sally cried. 

"I maintain it wasn't me." Little Percy stated arms across his chest. 

Most of the room laughed at him. Except for Athena and her children. Both Annabeth's looked exasperated.

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

"They can't really give you detention for that long," Jason said, rolling his eyes. "Can they?" 

"Oh, yes they can," Percy informed, thinking back. "Mrs. Dodds had me doing Pre-Algebra problems for a month and a half in detention just because I forgot my homework in my room. I mean I did the assignment and I gave it to her after school was over but I still got detention. It wasn't fair and did the other teachers do anything about it? Nope. Not one!" 

The Campers looked sick, pale, and scared at Percy's experience. Many had wished that they could go to normal schools but if it was like what Percy was experiencing then never mind.

The Gods were all watching silently and thoughtfully trying to figure out who these future kids belonged to.

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Could you be any more obvious Grover?" Thalia said, shaking her head. 

Both Grovers blushed.

"What do you mean?" Little Percy asked, looking at his best friend.

"It's in the book," Percy told himself. "It'll come up in this chapter what and who she is." 

Little Percy nodded.

Sally and several others didn't like the sound of that.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

"Doesn't it always?" Piper giggled.

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"**

**I looked at the carving and felt a flush of relief because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

There, was moaning and grumbling from said kids.

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and—"**

"GOD?!" Boomed Zeus.

Estelle blew a raspberry at him. 

"Oh, look she takes after you," Nico said, trying not to laugh.

"Aww, thanks, Nico," Percy beamed at him.

Nico flushed.

"Peace, husband," Hera grumbled, "I'm sure the teacher will correct him."

Zeus grumbled.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"**

"I see we need to work on your word choices," Paul said eyeing both Percy's. 

"Eh..." Percy said, rubbing the back of his head. "I was twelve?" 

"Don't blame me!" Little Percy cried, earning chuckles.

**"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

There was silence then Percy grunted as Thalia knocked him upside the head again. 

"What?" 

"You just summed up the biggest and most important war in History in three sentences!" Little Annabeth lectured. 

"It's a gift." both Percy's stated. 

Estelle giggled.

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

"Happy note?" Piper said, looking green around the edges. "Geesh."

She got nods of agreements. Estelle among them. 

"She doesn't understand what's being said does she?" Nico whispered, indicating the child in his lap. 

"Nah, she's only just turned, Nico," Percy said, "But then again you never know she could be a genius or something and really does understand. But I don't think so. I mean I'm sure she's super smart..." he backtracked as everyone was listening to him. "of that, I have no doubt but I don't think she really comprehends..."

"Percy," Annabeth said, a smile on her face like she was trying not to laugh, "Shut up and read."

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.**

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.**

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

"Of course, he does." Athena said, in exasperation, "He's a teacher and wants you to do your best."

"It paid off in the end." Percy shrugged.

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped.**

"Cool, let's do that!" Jason cheered. 

Percy found a pillow and threw it at him. Jason caught it grinning. They both laughed. Nico fought off jealousy.

**But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C– in my life. No—he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue**

"Boring." Complained Ares.

"Does it look or sound like we had anything better to do?" Percy asked. 

Ares glared at him and Percy glared right back. 

"Thalia, hit Prissy for me," Clarisse called. 

Thalia knocked Percy on the back of the head again. 

"Don't causing another war just because you can't keep your mouth shut." Thalia snapped. "It would be as pointless as the last one." 

Percy nodded his head in a way that said 'true' then continued reading.

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

"Oh, why are you two fighting this time?" Hades demanded.

"Hasn't happened yet," Poseidon spoke for the first time.

"It's actually supposed to happen ...." 

Percy grunted as Thalia hit him again. 

"No spoilers." she snapped.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." He sniffed. "Just for that, you don't get blue jellybeans." 

He reached in his bag and tossed his younger self a zip-lock bag full. Then pulled one out for himself. He put one in Estelle's mouth then popped one in his own.

Thalia gave him her best death-glare but of course, Percy was unaffected.

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

"One of yours?" Dionysus asked, Hermes. 

"Di Immortals!" Percy cried, "I hope not! I'll quit camp right now! Don't say such horrid things, Mr. D!"

Hermes laughed. 

"If she was my kid she would have already picked the pocket." He pointed out.

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school—the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean—I'm not a genius."**

Laughter erupted from the futures and Percy mock glared at all of him as his arm absently fell on to Nico's shoulders. 

Estelle really did glare at all of them. How dare they make fun of her Prissy! Her Prissy was the best in the whole world! She should drool on all of them! Or maybe poo on all of them! Yes! She should poo on all of them and make them change her just so she can do it again while they were changing her!

"Estelle, they aren't being mean," Percy said, kissing her head as if he'd read her thoughts. "If you poo on anyone, poo on past me! He should learn to change your diaper before you're born." 

Estelle wiggled until she was put down then toddle over to her mommy. Her mommy would know who she was supposed to poo on. 

Sally obliged her daughter by putting her in little Percy's lap. Paul snorted and turned a laugh into a cough at the look on Little Percy's face. 

"You're very cute, "Little Percy tried quickly, "Please don't use the potty on me?" 

Estelle gave him a sweet smile and pooed in her diaper. 

Everyone was laughing now. 

Nico noticed Percy's arm around him, and he wasn't the only one. Annabeth's glare promised death and several others looked curious especially Will Solace. The Gods and Goddesses looked curious as well. Aphrodite had her head tilted to one side and looked as if she was thinking hard.

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

"Mama's boy." Ares taunted. 

"And proud of it!" both Percy's stated patiently. 

Ares frowned hard this boy was no fun to tease. 

"Oh, Percy," Sally said, and hugged Little Percy and kissed his head, making him blush. 

Hestia smiled brightly and made a changing table appear in a corner so that Little Percy could change the now screaming Estelle.

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

"It was a rush order but it is one of my finer works," Hephaestus said, absently as he tinkered; Leo was doing the same in his own seat, "I could have done better if he'd given me more than six months notice that his old one had broken." 

Chiron sweat-dropped. 

"Is he actually listening?" Frank whispered, to Hazel.

"No idea," she whispered back.

Dionysus summoned the universes largest, thickest, longest, and most detailed wine catalog and began reading it slowly. Even if he couldn't drink wine for another hundred years. Though, he of course kept listening. Not that he was interested or anything.

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends—I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists—and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

"Could you repeat that?" Hades asked. 

" 'She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.' "Percy re-read. 

"EWWW!" Piper and Aphrodite cried, "Why'd you read that part again?!" 

"Lord Hades asked me to," Percy said, innocently.

Nico fought to keep a straight face. 

"That's not what he wanted you to re-read and you know it." Leo laughed.

"Hmm," Percy said as if thinking. "I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank." 

"Yes, continue," Zeus said, nodding. "The sentence after that one." 

Nico was shaking with contained laughter and still fighting to keep his brooding emo face. Percy gave him a quick wink which made Nico's mind go blank.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Percy lied, "Of course, you mean you wanted to hear, "A wave roared in my ears." 

"Yes, that's what we wanted to hear." Hades agreed. 

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see—"**

**"—the water—"**

**"—like it grabbed her—"**

"Oh, Percy." Sally sighed messing up little Percy's hair.

"She got what she deserved!" Little Percy defended, "But, uh... what did I do?" 

The Gods were all looking at Poseidon now. 

Poseidon kept a blank face he'd known Percy was his son the moment he'd seen him with Sally. Yes, it might have been thirteen years now but he still recognized her and she was still gorgeous. He had known that they would find out about his Oath Breaking at some point. He wasn't stupid enough to think that he could hide it from them. he was worried about what they would do to his son and how the Styx would punish him.

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey—"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

"Never guess your punishment!" Hermes cried, dramatically. "That's breaking the rules!"

Estelle decided she liked big Prissy and Scary better so walked back over to them. She was promptly picked up and put in Scary's lap where she went back to clinging to him and seel while sucking her thumb and being hugged. Yep, her Prissy always knew what she liked best.

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

Both Grovers blushed as the futures and some current campers said how brave they were. The current Grover and campers didn't know the half of it but they were about to.

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But—"**

**"You—will—stay—here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

"She moves that fast and you suspect nothing?" Jason asked. 

"I didn't know." Percy defended. 

"Know what?!" Little Percy asked, "What's she going to do to us?"

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

"Good." Percy wasn't sure who said it.

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

"A very appropriate punishment," Sally said, approvingly as she leaned into Paul and held Percy close. 

"I would have gladly done it." Percy sighed, "But no..."

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

"That's the smart thing?" Nico asked.

"Well, if your talking to a teacher it is." Percy said, "Especially, if you're in trouble. Like say, they found your secret stash of blue gumballs or discover that it was you who spraypainted Nancy Bobofits locker blue and filled it with stink bombs..." 

Hermes, his kids, and Apollo were laughing. Little Percy was grinning.

"That one was good," he said.

"I could smell straight for a week." Grover cried.

"She deserved it!" Little Percy defended when Sally gave him a disapproving look. "She pushed Grover into the pool, then set a fire that almost burned his backpack, but the wind shifted and it almost burned the entire soccer field, then she stole all of his schoolwork and set it on fire, then she..." 

Sally shushed him and smothered him in hugs. 

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll—I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

"Really?" Nico dead-panned, "You couldn't think of anything?" 

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.  
**

"Percy!" Sally scolded. 

Both Annabeth's and Athena looked highly offended. 

"Really, Percy, I thought better of you!" Annabeth spat. 

"You shouldn't have," Percy told her, "I couldn't get past the first four pages without falling asleep. I was thinking of setting the book on fire, you're lucky it made it back to the school library in the same condition it left." 

"That was my doing." Grover cut-in, "You were ready to shred it..."

Athena thought that the boy was right. It was easier to just start hating him from the beginning. He clearly deserved it.

Hermes was laughing again. 

"Selling illegal candy..." He finally said, wiping a tear from his eye.

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword—Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

"THAT'S WHAT CAME NATURALLY?!" several voices from past and present asked loudly. 

"Yep," Percy said.

Estelle was sitting up now and watching her Prissy. She tried to tell him to keep reading and of course, he gave her what she wanted.

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or something.**

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

"No." Everyone said at once. 

Sally looked terrified and was hugging little Percy protectively.

Estelle climbed over to her Prissy and did her best to make sure he wasn't hurt when she found he wasn't she climbed back on to her Scary and resumed her position and told her Prissy to continue.

Several people found this cute, others found it funny, others curious, others didn't know what to make of it.

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt." ******

"Who?" Several people asked at once. 

******I said, "Who?"** ** **

******"Our teacher. Duh!"** ** **

******I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.** ** **

******She just rolled her eyes and turned away.** ** **

******I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.** ** **

******He said, "Who?"** ** **

******But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.** ** **

******"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."** ** **

******Thunder boomed overhead.** ** **

"Why are you so angry?" Demeter wondered. "I bet cereal would improve your mood." 

"No thank you." Zeus stated. "and I don't know. This is the future..." 

**"Not so much so....."**

****

****

Thalia and Nico smacked Percy in the head this time. 

Nico blushed when Percy responded by pulling him closer to his side. 

******I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.** ** **

******I went over to him.** ** **

******He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."** ** **

******I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.** ** **

******"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"** ** **

******He stared at me blankly. "Who?"** ** **

******"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."** ** **

******He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at YancyAcademy. Are you feeling all right?"** ** **

"and that's the end of the chapter," Percy said, but he was talking to Estelle. "It's time for all little princesses to go to sleep now?" 

Estelle shook her head and demanded that her Scary read to her too.

"Estelle, nappy time," Percy said, sternly. 

It was a battle of wills and Percy finally met his match when tears came out of those wonderful blue eyes. 

"Okay, fine, Nico reads next." 

Nico protested but one smile from Percy and he was taking the book. 

He moaned. 

******THREE OLD LADIES KNIT THE SOCKS OF DEATH** ** **

Thalia knocked Percy on the back of the head for the Title alone. 


	2. Chapter 2

"Why does she keep hitting us?" Little Percy asked, "And who is she?" 

"This is Thalia my third best friend in the world," Percy explained. "Well, second now. I guess." 

"Third?" Thalia asked. "Now I'm second." 

"Yeah, it was Grover, Jason, Thalia, Annabeth, Clarisse." Percy said, "But now it's Grover, Thalia, Annabeth, Clarisse." 

Nico was hurt that he hadn't made the list. But Percy just pulled him closer. 

"Wow, man," Jason said from where he was sitting. "Thanks." 

Percy shrugged. 

"Wait," Clarisse said, her cheeks tinted pink. "I make your top 5 list of friends?"

"Of course you do. " Percy said rolling his eyes.

Little Percy though nodded. 

"and as for why she's hitting us. It's because she cares in her own demented way and is annoyed with us when we do stupid things." Percy explained. "FYI, I'll be getting smacked a lot. Okay, Nico, Three Old Ladies Knit the Socks of Death." 

Before Nico could start though more people appeared in the throne room. 

Zoe Nightshade, Hercules, Perseus, the original Jason, Triton, Amphitrite, and Theseus.

"Okay, Estelle you'll have to wait a bit longer for the second chapter of your story," Percy said getting up. "Big brother needs to kill someone." 

Everyone watched him uncap his pen. 

Percy launched straight at Hercules. 

"For Zoe Nightshade!" Percy cried and engaged Hercules in a sword fight.

The fight got brutal fast.

"He fights for me?" Zoe asked. "I do not understand. I do not know this boy, Lady Artemis." 

"You will at one point it would seem." Artemis said. She was as shocked as Zoe sounded.

Everyone was in awe of Percy's skills. 

"You are fighting with my sword," Hercules said as they were locked against each other.

"A sword that should never have been created you asshole!" Percy raged breaking the stalemate and slashing with everything he had.

Ares and his children were cheering and some were even taking bets.

"ENOUGH!" Zeus finally roared. 

Everything went silent until Estelle blew a raspberry at him and pouted. 

"I really like your sister, Prissy." Clarisse laughed messing up the child's hair.

The new comers were caught up as Percy's friends forced him to sit back down. 

"Now read." Zeus ordered.

Nico nodded.

**I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho.**

**It got so I almost believed them—Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

"Grover!" several people moaned. 

Little Percy and Estelle laughed.

**But Grover couldn't fool me. When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

"Oh, sweetie!" Sally cried hugging Little Percy close to her. 

Little Percy blushed. 

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the HudsonValley touched down only fifty miles from YancyAcademy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

"Seriously?" Hestia said shaking her head. 

"What are they fighting about?" Artemis frowned. 

"I was actually wondering if Zeus was trying to kill me that early. " Percy said.

"Why would I try to kill you?" Zeus asked, then glared at Poseidon who was suddenly very interested in his nails.

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

"Oh, Percy," Sally sighed, shaking her head. 

Estelle shook her head too. She was now in her Prissy's lap.

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to YancyAcademy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

"PERCY!" Sally and Annabeth cried and scolded respectfully.

Sally was hugging and fussing over Little Percy while Annabeth was giving Percy a look that clearly said that she disapproved and was disappointed in him. 

Nico frowned at her and found himself moving closer to Percy which just made Annabeth glare at them even harder. Nico couldn't bring himself to care.

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

"You like Poker?" Dionysus asked Paul.

"This was before me," Paul informed, "But I do play Poker every Saturday night with a few friends. It's just for fun though." 

"I like Paul's Poker Parties over Gabe's any day," Percy informed with a grin. 

Sally let out a sigh and Paul refused to look at her. 

**And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

"Percy..." Both Grovers cried.

Little Percy blushed but Percy just shrugged it off. 

**I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

"I know now so don't start with me!" Percy cried holding up his hands in surrender. "Don't try to murder me. I got it! I got it!"

Paul chuckled a bit. 

Nico blushed deeply and hid his head in the book as Percy's arm wrapped around his waist. 

Poseidon and Hades both noticed. 

Hades could feel his power on the one called Nico he was clearly his son. That Percy boy had all but been confirmed as a Sea Spawn. Were they together?

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave YancyAcademy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

Little Percy gasped in horror. 

"You broke the taboo!" He accused pointing at his older self. 

"Taboo?" Little Annabeth asked. 

"Asking a teacher for help!" Little Percy explained, "They don't care that we don't understand or might need a little more help. They just yell at you and tell you how stupid you are!" Half-Bloods around the room were listening and nodding. "That's why you never go to a teacher for help! It's taboo! It only gets you another lecture and in more trouble." 

"You're an idiot." Little Annabeth stated. 

"You take that back!" Little Percy cried. 

Percy sighed shaking his head. 

"Ugh, it's starting again!" Grover cried covering his ears. "Make it stop! I barely survive the first time!" 

Little Grover laughed while Little Percy and Little Annabeth glared at each other.

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper,**

There was snorting from Harry's friends. 

**but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

**I inched closer.**

**"... alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too—"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline— "**

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he saw her... ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

Nico stopped because Percy stopped him. 

"Thalia, Annabeth, Little Annabeth, Little Luke, do you care to throw in some comments here?" Percy asked.

Grover grunted as Thalia and Annabeth knocked him on the head hard and began yelling at him. 

Little Grover was in the same boat only with Little Annabeth and Little Luke yelling at him.

Zeus wanted to disagree with what they were saying. It was the Satyrs fault that his daughter was a tree. His eyes went to the future Thalia Grace who was clearly not a tree. So somehow she'd been cured but how?

"Okay, that's enough," Percy called over them. "Nico, please continue." 

Everyone wondered why the future's seemed so at ease by taking orders from Percy.

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall—"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

"Wait." Zeus said, "This Winter Solstice?" 

"Yeah, you see today was the day when....." Percy grunted as Thalia smacked the back of his head. "I mean, yes, Lord Zeus, something really bad was supposed to happen today but I can't tell you what it is. Reading this book is supposed to stop his really bad, horrible, awful, thing from happening. In all honesty if The Fates wanted that though they should have started this like a week ago or something." 

"I totally agree." Thalia and Nico nodded. 

Zeus and the Gods were frowning. 

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn ..."**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just... tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back.**

"It wasn't bad Percy!" Little Grover cried, "Really, it's for the best! I would never speak badly about you behind your back! Never!" 

Little Percy was frowning hard and it was clear that he wasn't much listening to Grover but must have heard something because he patted Grover's shoulder.

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam,**

There were several horrified gasps. 

"That's torture!" Jason cried, "How did you survive to get to Camp?!" 

Percy laughed. 

"That's nothing compared to what's coming up." He informed. "I'd take a four hour Latin exam over what happened next any day." 

Everyone shared worried and curious looks.

**my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy—"**

**But I was already gone.**

"I thought Mr. Brunner was cool." Little Percy pouted looking betrayed. "But he's just like all other teachers." 

Chiron flinched at that and the Ancient Demi-Gods noticed. 

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"Excuse me?" Triton asked, "A family of nobodies? Look around you, kid. Look where you are. How are we nobodies?" 

"I didn't know who my father was." Percy pointed out, "I didn't know about this world, or who I was or anything. So don't go starting with me." He showed that RipTide was in his hand. 

"Percy, you put your sword away while you're holding your sister!" Sally scolded. "You know the rules!" 

Percy sighed and tucked Riptide into his pocket. 

Little Percy had started a list of rules that he had when around his sister and added 'No weapons around Estelle' 

Paul chuckled and corrected his spelling but did it gently and softly so as not to embarrass him. 

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

"It was nice of them to include you. " Demeter said happily. 

"If you say so, Lady Demeter. " Percy said.

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

"That is rude." Artemis scoffed. 

"What do you expect, My Lady? They are boys." Zoe said. 

Artemis nodded. 

"Don't mind them," Percy sighed to Little Percy. "They're always like this." 

Everyone had to wonder how close he was to them that he would know that.

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

"Stalker much?" Nico said, trying to tease. He blushed, very pleased when he got laughs.

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

Everyone stared at Percy except the Futures. 

"So he's always been like this?" Thalia asked.

"Yep." Grover nodded.

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ..."**

**"Grover—"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

**His ears turned pink.**

"You really are," Annabeth told Grover. 

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

**"What's Half—"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or ... or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

Percy hissed and thanked the Gods that Thalia couldn't shock him without giving away whose Daughter she was because he was sure he would have ended up on the other side of the room.

"I didn't mean it like that don't look so sad..." Percy sighed. 

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

"Oh, nothing much." Grover said. 

Percy laughed. 

"I wish I could finish that but that would be spoilers." he said. 

Grover laughed too.

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.**

Nico stared at the book. 

"No," he said, shaking his head. He looked into Percy's wonderful green eyes. "No." 

"I'm fine." Percy told him fondly. "Don't worry."

"But this is....." 

"Yeah," Percy sighed, "It's not the last time either." 

**I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man—"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

"PERSEUS JACKSON!" The Futures including Nico bellowed. 

Little Percy was being squeezed to death by Sally. 

Estelle decided she was not going to be silent any longer she began yelling at her Prissy too. 

Perseus was shocked that this kid had his name. 

Thalia was hitting him over the head with her spear. Percy ignored the rules and grabbed his sword to protect himself. 

"WHAT IS GOING ON?!" Little Percy cried. 

"Nico, can you just...." Percy blocked Thalia's spear and it was taking everything he had to stop the spear point from going into his head. "NICO!" 

"I don't want to." Nico stated. "If they cut that string..." 

"Spoiler they do but it's not mine!" Percy said, his arm was shaking. "IT WASN'T MIINE!" 

"ENOUGH!" Zeus bellowed. He was getting a migraine. "Sit down! If he says it's not his we must believe him as he is sitting right here!" 

Estelle looked at him and blew a raspberry before continuing her yelling in the now silent room. She yelled until Prissy put jellies in her mouth. Then she stopped so that she could chew them. She loved jellies. 

"Nico?" Percy said, and pulled him close. "It wasn't mine." 

Nico was still frowning but nodded. 

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

"Thalia." Nico said. 

Percy grunted as she smacked him again. 

Clarisse shook her head. 

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

"Much worse," Theseus said.

"Oh, I know," Percy moaned, " I really wish they would leave me alone." 

No one liked the sound of that.

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.**

"You have good sight to catch that." Hera said. 

Everyone watched Percy tense but nod slowly. 

"I get it from my mom." He said, and his voice was strained. 

Jason was snickering.

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"I like lilies." He told Nico who blushed. He then looked down at Estelle. "Alright, you got your second chapter now its nappy time." 

Estelle pouted but nodded. 

"We'll take a break then," Hestia said. 

Percy gave Estelle to his mother and hugged her. Then pulled Nico away to talk to him.

* * *

They found a nice garden to talk in. 

"Percy..." 

"I've gone a long time fighting who I am." Percy said, "Just like you, Nico. I didn't want anyone to know. I like you too. I return your feelings I really do. Everyone expects me to be with Annabeth and I tried. I tried to do what was expected of me but it just depressed me so much. My world was hell." Percy hugged Nico to him and rested his cheek on Nico's head. "I don't want Annabeth I want you, Nico. I know you're too young for anything and I'm willing to wait. You're worth waiting for Nico. Will you be my boyfriend, Nico?" 

"Yes."

It was all Nico could say. His heart was pounding loudly. This was exactly what he'd wanted. He shyly put his arms around Percy's waist. 

Neither saw that Poseidon, Hades, and the Futures minus Annabeth had heard and watched them. 

"Well, I didn't see this coming." Piper hissed, "and I'm...." 

Leo put his hand over her mouth and shook his head. She nodded quickly.

Poseidon was just glad that his son was happy.


End file.
